Crossing Over
by T'Kirr
Summary: TenRose Reunion. After the death of the part-human Doctor, Rose's despair reaches across dimensions. The Tenth Doctor and Rose risk everything to get back to each other.
1. PART ONE

It's not the sequel to Effigermus, but it's something in the meantime. I woke up at 6am from a dream. This is the result.

This is for WhoMe-2. You can persevere!

Summary: TenRose Reunion, two parts. After the death of the part-human Doctor, Rose's despair reaches across dimensions. The Tenth Doctor and Rose risk everything to get back to each other.

PART ONE

A tiny blue police box floated adrift in the vacuum of cold, deep space, it's windows dark.

The Doctor was suddenly wracked with desperate gasps for air. At first, there was nothing but confusion and an instinctive effort to pull in breaths, the sound of it loud in his ears, the only sound. Pain and searing images of his own screaming blinded his eyes as he clung to the console, the TARDIS hurtling not in space, not even in time, but _sideways_ through dimensions. Through the Void.

After several successful breaths, the Doctor became aware of his surroundings. He was on the floor, the grating of the console room; he could feel its icy texture under his scrabbling fingers, hear its metallic echo as his elbow slammed into it. Everything, _everything_ was dark. All he could see was a few pricks of light outside the windows way over at the door and the faint wash of starlight on the inner shell of the cavernous room.

The images having faded, he could now recognise them as recent memories. He sat himself up in the lonely darkness as reality filtered back to him, his throat completely parched. He had made it through the Void. Somehow, it hadn't killed him.

Or maybe it had.

A numbed palm gripped his chest in an attempt to identify himself. Still slight in frame. He felt for his face and confirmed it was still his. He hadn't regenerated. Or had he?

The Doctor forced his dry tongue between his lips, desperate for water, but he looked to the console instead. There was no life in the rotor, not a hint of it. He looked down through the grating. Nothing, nothing at all. _Nothing._

Crossing the Void had killed the TARDIS.

Of course it had. He hadn't up any shielding at all. What else could happen, going through what some would call Hell itself? Still, he wouldn't have attempted it if there had been no chance for him to survive. But if the TARDIS hadn't made it through, how had he?

He looked again to the windows. Stars. He wasn't in the Void. He had crossed through, but it had cost the TARDIS her life.

There hadn't been a choice. The ability to travel between dimensions properly was lost with the Time Lords. If he had attempted to cross through with any shielding, he would have destroyed two universes in an all-consuming implosion of space's very fabric. But this, flinging himself unprotected, his comparatively fragile self and ship into a dimensional wall should have killed him. Falling through an atmosphere like Earth's and landing on the ground would kill anyone. Except the miraculous few that walked away.

He should be dead.

The Doctor turned and began to crawl, both towards the door and mentally out of his misery and towards his second chance until he could get his feet under him. He pulled himself up by the ramp's railing, but he overbalanced and fell into the door. Groaning, he stood as well as he could and peered through the windows.

Normally, they were opaque to keep prying eyes out of his business when he landed places. Honestly, he had done it long ago when slogging through the existential programming and couldn't even remember now how to make them transparent again. If he ever wanted to look out, he just opened the door and boldly stepped out to greet his fate. It seemed the TARDIS had done it on her own now, however, and he was glad for it. He dare not step out now, not without power to the plasmic shell to keep the dimensional gateway intact.

All he could see was deep space. The TARDIS was rotating slowly, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

As he watched the starfield in hopelessness, his respiratory rate increased as painful memories of before began to overwhelm him. Despair, such agonising despair! Rose, crying out, her Doctor dead. The metacrisis had failed. It wasn't supposed to happen to his part-human clone like it had Donna. He had been Time Lord, he should have survived! With his mind, _he _was supposed to be able to take it. But in the end, his double had been the same as Donna, and neither could survive the state in between.

Rose was alone now. That wasn't supposed to happen! The Doctor _never_ would have left her alone in another dimension willingly. It was hard enough pushing her away with _him_, telling her to live a happy life and sacrifice his own happiness in the process. The curse of the Time Lords. He had to go on. Alone. Not her.

Damn Time and Space. Damn his calling to save the Universe over and over and over. He had hurt so many, left so much collateral damage in his wake, and he had carried on through it all, as one does. He hurt everyone, but that was his life. From his friends, acquaintances, even enemies, he could take it.

But not her. _Oh_, not her. The hardest thing he had ever done, next to destroying his entire race, was leave Rose. His self-inflicted genocide had almost destroyed him, but she had saved him from that. He couldn't take that kind of pain again. His only solace had been to leave _him_ with her and tell her to have a happy life, the adventure he never could have, and he thought that would be enough.

Feeling her pain at the loss of him was the end. He didn't care about the Universe anymore. It could fend for itself. He didn't want to exist any longer.

_Unless_ he could get to her. The chances he could die crossing to her dimension were astronomically high. He hadn't a choice, though, either get to her or die trying. He would do this for himself, all or nothing. Nothing else mattered to him. Crossing dimensions unshielded should have destroyed everything organic within the TARDIS, including himself, but here he was.

Something outside caught his eye as the ship continued to rotate. The Doctor strained against the door to change his perspective. He croaked out in disbelief as he recognised Far Comm Three, the tiny space outpost. He had made it! All was not lost, not yet. Quickly formulating a plan, he stumbled out of the console room, guided only by emergency lighting along the corridor edges. He was so dehydrated, he couldn't believe he was conscious. How long had he been lying there on the floor?

He reached the kitchen. Fumbling with the lever, he switched the tap on. The water pressure was all wrong, but he cupped his hands and drank what spat out. Immediate relief washed through him, soothing his throat as his tissues quickly absorbed what was needed. Even though his body craved rest, there was no time. He had to go.

-^^-W-^^-

Minutes later, the Doctor emerged into the dark and eerily quiet console room, fastening his helmet clasps securely to his space suit. He made it to the door quickly and checked the rotation. Far Comm Three was almost straight out, but not quite. He had to be careful and do this right the first time. There were no second chances in this.

The doors wouldn't open inward, not with the difference in pressure. Grasping one of the roundels on the wall next to the door, the Doctor twisted and pulled until it came free. He dropped the cover and worked his gloved fingers carefully around the emergency ejection handle. Training his eyes straight ahead on the outpost, he waited, fidgeting with his other hand making sure everything on his suit was in place.

This was it. The time was now. Sucking in a breath and pulling his head back against his helmet, the Doctor pulled.

An explosive sound reverberated through the wall from above and below the doors, and both doors immediately swung outward. It felt like a huge hammer slammed into his back, his feet losing purchase on the floor and the room falling away behind him as the TARDIS interior pressure blew out into space and shot him straight at the outpost.

So far so good! He felt a painful sting at the loss of his ship and wished he could look behind him. He imagined it would look very small, even as the tiny outpost in front of him loomed larger and larger and he became weightless.

He wasn't sure how Rose had called to him from across dimensions. It seemed so impossible that he at first considered he was going mad and inventing the entire experience. He could reach her, yes, but how had he felt her?

The more he had thought about it afterwards, he acquiesced that Rose herself was a gloriously impossible thing, and he had decided to appreciate the gift of actually being able to hear her and try his best to communicate. The first place that came to mind, some place close to a sealed crack between worlds she could get to, was Far Comm Three.

There were so many uncertainties, however. He knew the outpost existed in this parallel—he had seen it when studying the boundaries from the last time he was here—but did a route for Rose to get to it exist? He hadn't time to tell her how, but Rose was brilliant and would find a way. She had acknowledged his instructions of where and when, but the biggest uncertainty of all was, of course, whether he would survive the trip. After all her efforts, the Doctor was more than likely to not make the rendezvous point.

But here he was. If he could survive the impossible and make it this far, certainly she could, too. Several endless minutes of falling through space passed, and the Doctor studied the structure in front of him as he drew close. It was so quiet, no sign of activity. The radar aerials weren't spinning. The windows weren't giving off as much light as he assumed they should. He wondered if the generators were even running. He couldn't hear if they were, of course, through the vacuum of space anyway.

From so far away, he hadn't judged his trajectory quite right. That was okay since his suit had a minor propulsion system. The tiny jets steered him on course, and the Doctor was soon magentising his boots and maneuvering his feet in front of him. Once he was sure he wasn't going to bounce off and was stuck to the surface, the Doctor let out a breath of relief, straightened, and walked carefully towards the nearest hatch.

The Doctor's fears were confirmed when the door didn't open. He struggled with the manual release and climbed inside. Had Rose found the place abandoned and was waiting somewhere else? Or worse, had something happened while she was inside?

The gravity was offline, the corridors deserted and lit only minimally. His atmospheric sensor on his suit registered critically low oxygen levels. Walking in magnetised boots was excruciatingly slow, however it didn't take long for the Doctor to reach the control deck, the place he was most likely to find anyone. He pried open the door and looked inside. The large windows afforded a panorama of space. Below them was a long bank of offline control consoles.

A portable heater glowed brightly, casting its light on the nearest chair. The Doctor's hearts seized in his chest when he recognised Rose's reclined form.

"_Rose!_" The Doctor broke the seal of his boots with the floor and pushed off the wall. _She's not dead, she's not dead_, he repeated to himself desperately, and called her name again, but there was no response. He sailed over a discarded space suit lying a few feet away right before he collided with the computer desk opposite the heater next to her. Grabbing hold, the Doctor planted his feet back on the floor and twisted until he could see Rose through his helmet. She was strapped around the hips to the chair, her head to the side and her eyes closed. Just the sight of his beautiful Rose brought him joy, which at once warred with the irony of a series of unlikely events leading them finally back together only to find her like this.

He reached around his suit until he found the spare respirator and pulled, extending it towards her mouth while he positioned her head with his other gloved hand. Tilting her head up and holding the mask in place, the Doctor looked down her body, looking for any signs of injury. He didn't see any, but he didn't see her chest rising at all, either. She had oxygen, but she wasn't breathing it in.

The Doctor cursed into his helmet while simultaneously struggling to pull it off. It bounced off the floor and floated away as he picked up the mask from his suit and breathed it in. He willed his respiratory bypass system to keep his lungs from absorbing oxygen, but he knew it couldn't work that way. Holding the breath in, the Doctor tilted Rose's head again and made a seal around her cold mouth with his lips. As he expelled, forcing the oxygenated air into her lungs, the image of his part-human clone kissing Rose properly on that damned beach came to mind. The Doctor had so envied him then. That man was dead now, though, and fate continued to mock him now, as the kiss of life was hardly what he was hoping for.

Nothing happened.

"No, no, no." His gloves were too thick to feel anything, so the Doctor pressed his cheek against Rose's chest. He could hear the beating of her heart, too slow but there. She just needed more oxygen. Pulling a breath from the mask again, he breathed into Rose again, then again. He continued in this way for what had to be minutes before the Doctor began to panic.

"Come on, Rose!" he urged, the pitch of his voice betraying him. "It's me, see? I'm here! I made it!" He continued to respirate her, offering her soothing words and nonsense, simultaneously running through his mind what could be wrong with her. Was she too cold, despite the heater next to her? Had she been too long without enough oxygen?

Finally he stopped and pressed the side of his face to her chest again. He was very still, but he couldn't hear anything. "No," he whispered. The Doctor repositioned his head and listened again, but there was still nothing. "No! Not now! Rose, stay with me!" He began to tremble, almost paralysed by fear. Turning his head a moment to look into her face, he then buried his face in her neck, straining to feel something, anything.

Nothing.

The Doctor drew back, determined not to give up. He couldn't, not now. Not after all this. He placed his palm carefully over her breastbone. Keeping his eyes trained on the spot, he lifted his hand and slowly twisted his body as he took in a deep breath of the useless air. Expelling sharply and curling his lip in determination, he swung down hard, connecting a blow straight to her heart.

It was instant, startling and fantastic all at once. Rose curled forward, her eyes open wide, her mouth agape. It took a moment to register what was happening, and the Doctor laughed in amazement. He then realised she wasn't actually breathing, as if he had reset her heart and simultaneously knocked the wind out of her. Grabbing the mask, he brought it to her mouth. Rose clutched at the hand over the mask, and finally, she took in a deep, shuddering breath.

"There you go!" the Doctor laughed out, not quite believing she had come around. Hope surged back through him in full force. His knees became suddenly weak; he would have collapsed in his relief had there been gravity, but only needed to catch himself against the chair to compensate.

Rose's eyes darted around in confusion, and after several deep breaths, he could feel her grip on the mask strengthen considerably, and her gaze locked with his.

The Doctor's lips drew back slowly in a mad grin of unbelievable happiness. "Hello."

The corners of Rose's mouth escaped the mask on either side, but quickly disappeared as her eyebrows drew taut and she sobbed into her mask. One arm came up towards him, and the Doctor quickly obliged, dropping down to soothe her in a hug.

"Oh, shh-shh-shh, I'm here. I'm here. It's impossible, but I'm here!"

Rose was only able to lift the mask a little ways in his embrace, but he could hear her clearly. "Impossible is what we do, yeah?"

The Doctor found himself giggling, unable to stop as the joy of hearing her voice penetrated into his very soul. He finally began to feel lightheaded, and rose up to take her mask from her. "Here, give me some of that."

Rose grimaced as he took in a breath for himself, putting a hand to her chest.. "God, I feel like I've been kicked."

He snorted into the mask and pulled it away to speak. "Yeah, sorry about that." When she gave him an odd look, he hesitated a moment at the sobering experience and clarified brokenly, "Your heart stopped."

Rose stared at him before finally turning her head, searching the stars. "Why did you wait out there so long? I couldn't tell for sure if the TARDIS was okay or not, and wondered if you were hurt."

He gave the mask back to her. It hurt enough knowing his ship's fate. He couldn't bear to upset her, not now. The Doctor cleared his throat, avoiding her eyes as he looked around. "Where's everyone else? Why's the power down? You obviously didn't find it like this, otherwise you'd still have a ship here."

"It's just me. Apparently they stopped using this place some time ago, but my ride was willing to drop me off. I saw no reason for them to stay once I flipped the on switch." Seemingly not affected by the Doctor's misdirection, he chanced looking at her as she went on. "Supposedly it's self-sustaining. They said they'd come back in a few days if I asked them to." She took a breath before handing the mask back then looked outside. "I sat and waited until the time you said you'd come, watching. Suddenly there was this flash of light in space and this ring came out of it, like a wave. It hit the outpost, a few panels exploded, and the power went out. I tried to get something to turn on, anything at all, but nothing, it's all fried." She pointed at the heating unit. "Found this in a cupboard, though, and dragged it out. No idea how long it would last, though.

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly, then passed Rose the mask. "TARDIS entry. Apparently it created an EMP. How long has it been since then?"

Rose frowned at him. "About...three days?" She squinted shrewdly. "Why don't you know? Were you hurt?"

The Doctor's mouth fell open. "Three _days_? There we are, then. I just woke up."

Her eyes widened, round and shining. "But you're okay now, yeah?

The Doctor gazed into her eyes and smiled tenderly. "Oh, yes." He was rewarded when a smile of her own lit up her face in response. Rose then began to sit up, unfastening the strap holding her to the chair. His hands quickly went to steady her, and he bit back an objection when he saw her moving carefully and a bit stiffly. She groaned and slowly swung her legs over, holding onto the edge. Sensing her need, the Doctor brought the mask to her mouth, and she took several deep breaths.

Rose moved her face away from the mask a moment. "So, what's the plan? We head for the TARDIS now? I hope you didn't land her very far." The Doctor's eyes fell away, and he looked towards the door, decidedly away from her, and she grew concerned. "Doctor? What's wrong? The TARDIS is here, isn't she?"

He swallowed uncomfortably and forced himself to meet her eyes. "I don't know that it would matter if she was. Rose, I...there's nothing I could do. She's perished."

Rose just stared at him, not quite believing it. "Wh-what? But...how?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Crossing through to this dimension with no shielding, it was understandably too much for her. It had to be that way. I shouldn't even be alive. Protected me, probably, but couldn't save herself." He sighed deeply of the useless gases before taking the mask. "I'm sorry."

"But," she protested, her eyes darting in thought. "Back when we first ended up here, back with the Cybermen. You said she died then, too." The Doctor began shaking his head, but she kept on. "You fixed it then, you can just do it again, yeah?"

"There was something then, something of the TARDIS still alive, but not now. Anything from this universe is the wrong kind of power, isn't compatible with the systems. And we can't get back to the other universe to get more." Rose frowned again in thought, then suddenly she was rising to her feet. "Woah, where do you think you're going?"

Rose took the Doctor's mask, pulled in one last deep breath, then turned to look at her discarded space suit lying magnetised to the floor a few feet away. She then pushed off gently from the chair and landed next to it, holding onto it and searching one of the pockets. Rose pulled out a squash-sized object and showed it to him. "This wouldn't work, would it?"

He had stood watching her in confusion, but when it registered what the Doctor was looking at, he gaped in amazement. "Coral," he breathed. Then suddenly he was shouting. "_TARDIS coral!_" He launched himself off, landing in front of her and sweeping up the tan-coloured chunk in one smooth movement. "Hah! I'd forgotten I'd given you this! Native RNA, transdimensional power of life, perfect! Rose, this is all we need!"

When the Doctor stumbled to one side, Rose laughed and caught the mask dangling from his suit, taking a breath for herself before offering it to him. "You've also forgotten to breathe. See? You always work it out."

The Doctor shook his head and lowered the mask. "Not this, Rose, oh no. You worked this one out." He beamed, shining in his pride and adoration. "My clever, clever Rose."

Rose smiled back, and before she knew what was happening, the Doctor had let go of the mask and curled his fingers behind her head and now he was kissing her, and it was rapture and solace and passion and gloriously _fantastic_.

All too soon, Rose pushed him away, gasping partly in excitement but mostly for oxygen. As she looked down for the mask, she started in surprise. "Um, Doctor..."

He only had eyes for her, dark and focused on her mouth. "Hm?"

Before slipping the mask over her mouth and breaking his point of focus, Rose softly informed him, "We're floating."

The Doctor glanced down, barked a laugh of surprise, then began giggling again, hugging Rose in mid-air. "I suppose there's a euphemism in here somewhere." Rose hugged him back, sighing into the mask, and simply enjoyed the Doctor's embrace, happy and content and finding him quite comfortable in zero gravity. Before she could get used to it, though, he drew back and looked into her eyes, the passion in them now shifted into another direction. "Get your breath and go for your suit. I'm going for my helmet, which is over..." he craned his neck around, "...by the broom cupboard. Ready?" Rose breathed deeply of the mask, then nodded. He shoved her downwards by the shoulders. "Go!"


	2. PART TWO

Thanks everyone for your warm welcome back! It's encouraging me to perhaps divert my attention from animation in the coming months and get that sequel going...

-^^-W-^^-

PART TWO

The Doctor and Rose stood side by side in their sealed space suits, looking out at the tiny blue box from the open airlock of the outpost. They could barely make it out, and he had needed to search the blackness for a minute before he had spotted it. The Doctor had transferred half his oxygen supply to Rose's suit, and now he had a mobile jetpack system strapped to his back that was significantly more robust than his suit's internal emergency system. It was a good thing, too, because when the console room had decompressed, it had thrown the TARDIS back, and with nothing to stop its journey, it was still drifting further and further away.

Rose was shivering, the cold of deep space seeping through to her already half-frozen body. She was tough, though, and would see this through. She had to. Once they got to the TARDIS, they would work everything out and it would be okay. Dead or not, just being inside would offer protection from space until they got her working again.

"All right," the Doctor said with finality. "Stay here, I'll be back soon."

"What?" Rose exclaimed, latching her right gloved hand onto his suit. "You're not leaving me behind!"

"Rose, it's dangerous. Jetpack or not, the TARDIS is a significantly small mark to make. I know the outpost is out of power, but it's still safer than floating out in deep space."

"But you're going!"

"Well yes, someone has to!"

"So I'm going with you!"

The Doctor peered down into Rose's face shield through his, their eyes connecting. From her expression, he could see there would be no swaying her. "There are no guarantees," he assured softly.

"There never have been," she replied, as if that explained it all, and really, it did.

He smiled slowly, again proud of his courageous companion. The Doctor placed his own right hand over hers, the one holding his suit in a deathgrip. "We go together." Rose relaxed in relief, and the Doctor reached for the tether line reel on her suit and latched it to a ring on his. Only then did Rose let go, her right hand still held by his. They couldn't thread their fingers through the gloves, but the grip was tight and reassuring and so very _right_.

The Doctor maneuvered behind her, released his magnetisation to the floor of the airlock, and with his free hand gripped her shoulder until his knees were locked around her hips. "All right, let go of the floor." Rose did so, their right hands still firmly clasped. "Ready? Here we go!"

The jetpack hissed and propelled them forward and away from the outpost. At first it was tiny adjustments, compensating for their unusual centre of gravity and getting them going in the right direction. Rose's helmet pressed back into the Doctor's front as he steadily built momentum towards their target. Neither of them could look back at the outpost, facing straight forward to see nothing but the enveloping expanse of starfield and a tiny blue box that didn't seem to be getting any closer.

It was a bittersweet sight, the TARDIS drifting distant and alone in a cold vacuum sea. The last time the Doctor had seen her, and although from this distance he couldn't tell, he knew she was lifeless and helpless to repair herself. He had felt helpless himself, then, so alone without her or Rose. But he had Rose, now, floating through space with literally no one but her, the lack of anything around them accentuating just how alive she was. He gripped her a little tighter around the waist with his legs and gave her hand a grateful squeeze, which she returned.

And soon, if their fortune continued, the living coral produced from the TARDIS herself would bring their magnificent ship back to them.

_Their_ ship. He really liked the sound of that. It was as much hers now as his, wasn't it?

"We're coming!" Rose called through the linked comm of their space suits, and the Doctor grinned. She clearly was thinking similar thoughts to himself.

The size of the TARDIS increased in size so slowly and gradually that it seemed to not even be growing nearer at all until they were almost to it. It was then small course adjustments became much more frequent as the Doctor concentrated on not overshooting their mark.

They suddenly seemed to be moving so fast as they neared it, the wide gaping doors swung unusually outward and the interior blacker than the space outside. The Doctor triggered the reverse thrusters and he could see the whoosh of gas on either side of his helmet and feel them past his legs as the pair of them eased into a slower speed to match that of the TARDIS.

Rose caught the edge of a door first. "We made it!"

"Indeed we have. We're not safe yet, though." Once inside, Rose fell forward when normal gravity was suddenly pulling unexpectedly at her. The Doctor tried to catch her by the tether, but he had nothing to hold on to and was pulled down on top of her into the darkness.

"Oof! What?"

Despite his discomfort, the Doctor had to laugh. "You okay?"

"How is there gravity?"

"It's the TARDIS," he quipped, as if that explained everything.

"There's gravity even though there's no power?"

"The interior is in a different dimension than the exterior, you know that."

"But...okay, so I can take off my helmet, then?"

"No!"

"But you said—"

Gravity doesn't travel between dimensions! Gases can, just like we can, and it all got blown out." The Doctor managed to right himself enough to blindly unclip Rose's tether from his suit. "Got a nice ride with it towards the outpost, too."

"Well, when you put it that way," Rose responded wryly. She picked herself up and switched on the beacons on her helmet and looked around properly. "This isn't how I imagined seeing her again."

The Doctor was pulling the chunk of coral out of his pocket. "I've noticed you've become quite handy with that space suit," he commented appreciatively.

"Yeah, well, I've been in it for a while. When you don't have much, you learn to appreciate what little you do have."

"Tell me about it." The Doctor carried the coral to the console but didn't set it down. Instead, he bent down and somehow managed to get his gloved fingers through the grating, pulling up a section and setting it aside. He turned to check on Rose and found her reaching outside. "Careful!" he scolded her.

"I'm just trying to shut the doors, I'm fine."

"They're useless now. Closing them won't do any good until the TARDIS can repair them. Come back before you stop one of my hearts again." When Rose turned around and began walking towards him, he turned and lowered himself carefully down through the gap in the grating.

"How d'you mean, 'again'?"

"Blimey, this isn't an easy fit in a space suit," the Doctor murmured in deflection. "Here, shine your torches down here." As she neared and cast enough light to see by, the Doctor poked and prodded the lower workings of the TARDIS until he found what he was looking for. "There you are, my beauty!"

"Say wha-? I'm up here," Rose teased.

The Doctor grinned good-naturedly, but due to the cumbersome restrictions of his helmet, Rose couldn't see it. The happy sound from the back of his throat that came through the comm system was enough to satisfy her, though.

After sandwiching the piece of coral between two ends of a cable, the Doctor stilled in dramatic pause. Rose couldn't see what he was about to do, and he had to admit, she would no doubt find it impressive, but only if he narrated for her. Besides, he had been disappointed she had missed the first time around years ago. "And now, a few years of my life in exchange for a resurrected TARDIS, well worth it, I'd say."

He emitted forth his essence, willing the TARDIS to absorb it and waited, but nothing happened. Frowning, he repositioned the ends of the cable and tried again, flicking bits of the frayed one and trying a third time, but still nothing happened. "Uh, Rose. See anything up there? Lights, motion, any sort of activity? Anything?"

Rose stood and rotated her whole body to get a proper view from her helmet. "No."

The Doctor stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth and gripped the coral hard, pressing the cable ends into its surface. "Now?"

'No, Doctor."

Something was wrong. The Doctor's bravado was beginning to wane, and he failed to keep it out of his tone. "This doesn't make sense. It should _work_."

"But you'll make it right," Rose assured helpfully.

He shook his head, another motion she couldn't see. "Don't know how. This is the interface. So unless something between the cable line and her heart is fried..."

The Doctor placed the coral on the edge of the console above his work area, securing down the ends of the cable with the paperweight. There was a pause of silence as he then began delving deeper, pulling aside nonessential components that got in his way. Rose peered down, making sure her light reached what was in front of him. He dug for a while, losing a battle against hopelessness.

Rose seemed to pick up on it. Her voice was light, encouraging. "So, in the meantime, we've got more air somewhere, yeah?"

The Doctor grimaced, feeding a cable through his gloved hand in an attempt to feel for a break. "No."

"But...we've only got half an hour each."

"I know." There was an uncomfortable pause, then his voice wavered. "That's why I've got to keep working."

"You've got a mighty time and spaceship with no spare oxygen?"

"I did have!" the Doctor growled, only stopping momentarily in his work. His frustration and fear for her safety were beginning to get the better of him. He took in a calming breath, one of the few he would have left. "I checked the tanks when I went to get my spacesuit. Apparently, they exploded, judging by the damage to the medical bay."

The light fell away. In the Doctor's restricted and tangled state, he couldn't easily extract himself to look up. "Rose? Come on, I'm not giving up yet, and to keep trying, I need the light."

"Sorry, yeah," came her soft reply, and the light shone back through the floor grating.

-^^-W-^^-

It really wasn't fair. After all of their efforts, all the distance they had traveled and risks they had taken, it was going to end like this. It felt like Rose had already run out of her oxygen supply as she laboured to breathe while fighting to keep the light steady. At least they would die together. That's how it should be, really. At least with this end, she got to see him. The _original_ him.

"I'm going to see you die twice, you know," Rose said flatly.

She could see the Doctor's movements momentarily still in the light. "I won't let that happen."

Rose nodded, fighting back tears. "That's what _he_ said. He couldn't stop it, though." She meant to say more, but it was too hard to speak. They were bitter words, anyway, so she was probably better off.

"We're not done yet." He was silent for a few moments, but she could tell by his voice that he was fighting his own battle with emotion. "But, if it _does_ come to that, I'll make sure I have a little more." His verbal speed picked up, his tone rising. "You saw _him_ die, and I'm so sorry for that, I really am. I never meant for that to happen, I swear. From your perspective, _he_ was essentially me. I'll...I'll make sure that when you sleep, it's in my arms."

Rose could hear his words end in a choked sob. She couldn't be angry. It wasn't his fault. They had both struggled so hard to get back to each other, and that's why it hurt so much. For so long she had desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were when they had last traveled properly together, just him and her, before the war at Torchwood. She had never been happier in all her life. If she dared let herself believe, Rose thought that just maybe, the Doctor had never been happier, too.

"We've got to keep calm, Rose," the Doctor insisted, his voice stronger now. "We need to conserve what we have."

Rose nodded to herself. She had been about to tell him that she would never get to touch him again, but that wouldn't do either of them any good. While concentrating on keeping the light steady, Rose glanced up past the top edge of her helmet's transparent face at the coral sitting on the edge of the dead, dark console. She wished so much that the console would again glow that deep, satisfying green. Feeling useless and attempting to be helpful, she reached out with her gloved hands and pressed the cable ends to the surface of the coral.

"Rose, please. I need the light."

There was something in it, alive and stirring, that she had never felt before in all the times she had touched the coral. Rose frowned and stared in wonder. The TARDIS coral was alive and calling to her. If only she could touch it properly without the spacesuit in the way.

Everything was suddenly lost in amber white.

-^^-W-^^-

Rose was clearly focused on something else, but she wouldn't even answer him. In the dimness, the Doctor could see the beams of her helmet torches shining back at him from the nearby wall. What, then, was casting the soft amber glow from above?

It was then the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Energy coursed through the cable in his hands. The Doctor kicked at the floor in his sudden haste to back out of the crawlspace, banging his helmet into the floor grating above. "Rose? Rose! What's going on?"

After struggling for much too long, the Doctor pulled the hose from around his waist and pushed up from the gap in the floor. He cried out in fear and fell back against the opening when he saw the golden glow shining on the console from Rose's helmet. Her hands were on the coral and her back was to him, but he could also see her hands glowing around it.

Hands that were no longer sealed within her spacesuit.

"_Rose!_" The Doctor scurried out and onto his feet as quickly as he could, but he knew it was already too late. Part of him dreaded that this was happening again. He feared it would kill her, but he knew both of them hadn't had long anyway, and he told himself this was at least a chance.

Now that he was standing, the Doctor could see her spacesuit had disappeared from her arms as well. As he watched, it spread faster and faster until Rose was standing as if she weren't actually exposed to the vacuum of space as she was, gleaming and clutching the TARDIS coral on the edge of the console.

This time, the energy hadn't come from the heart of the TARDIS. Its heart was cold and dead now, but Rose was surrounded by its vortex energy.

This time, the energy had come from _her._

The luminescence began to dim, and Rose began to shake.

"No, no, Rose. It's too much!" The Doctor stepped forward, next to her, and peered into her glowing golden eyes. She couldn't see him, and his hearts twisted in his chest. He didn't know if she was even still alive.

The Doctor looked down at the coral in her hands. There was nothing else for it, now. "Take me with you," he whispered. Sucking in a breath, the Doctor placed his hands over hers.

The power of the time vortex ripped through his mind, and he could hear the TARDIS sing with joy. Rose was with him, selflessly pouring her life energy into the TARDIS. He supplemented it with his own, and also gave the power direction.

The console and column of the time rotor began to glow, emerald and vibrant. The outer doors swung shut and sealed, and the room began to pressurise. A throbbing hum filled the room, and a strong and insistent voice filled his mind.

_Out!_

The Doctor was next aware of staring at the dome ceiling of the console room, but it wasn't black anymore. He could make out all the roundels in their healthy soft golden brown, everything appearing normal, as the TARDIS had always been.

Groaning, the Doctor turned his head against the grating for the second time that day, and was suddenly alarmed. Where was his spacesuit?

Rose lay a few feet away, unconscious. The Doctor gasped in perfectly sustaining air and clambered over to her. "Rose? He tried, noticing his voice was still the same. Apparently, he had cheated regeneration yet again, but was Rose as fortunate as he? There was a strong pulse in her neck against his fingertips. Gently he threaded her hair away from her face, his thumb settling in a rhythmic pattern at her temple as he gazed at her face. She was breathing, and her colour was good.

The Doctor looked up at the console. A wide grin stole across his face as hope flared in his chest. Maybe, just _maybe_, everything would work out after all. Getting to his feet, he began flipping levers and pressing buttons, testing the systems to assess the TARDIS' condition. He was so wrapped up in it that Rose's stirring caught him by surprise.

"Rose!" he welcomed joyously.

"Erph." Rose propped herself up with a hand and rubbed her head with the other. "What happened?"

"You happened," he chirped simply.

"I wha-?"

"The TARDIS. She's well on her way to a full recovery, good as new. Well, I say 'good as new'. At least the console room is in one piece. Can't say the same for the wardrobe. How are you with hanging up clothes?"

Rose sat up fully and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do I get the feeling I should be asking you if you're about to regenerate?"

"Nope!" he popped, dancing around the console. "Why would I wanna do that? Like myself just the way I am." He grinned sidelong down at Rose and bobbed his eyebrows. "Think you do, too."

"You're so full of it," Rose admonished, which only caused him to giggle. "You're in a good mood. So the TARDIS isn't gonna freak out and spit us up or anything, I take it?"

"As I said, recovering! We're safe!" He crouched down next to Rose wearing a reverent expression. "You did it."

"I did?"

"Yep!" The Doctor offered Rose a hand up. "Apparently, the coral was much more in tune with you than me. Perhaps it had adapted somewhat growing in this universe, like you."

Now on her feet, Rose stared at him in shock. "The TARDIS. It was in me!"

"Yes it was. Although this time instead of the TARDIS lending you power, you lent yours to her."

She screwed up her face. "I'm just human, though. I don't have power."

The Doctor's eyes flicked up and down her. "Apparently you do. I don't know, perhaps left over from before, latent all this time. It would also explain how you called out to me from across dimensions. Whatever it is, it has 'Bad Wolf' written all over it." Rose stared off in thought while the Doctor watched her for a moment. Suddenly he turned, bounding for the console again. "So! Once we've given her a few hours to repair, where do you want to go first?"

Rose shook her head in disbelief and grinned. "I can't believe this is really happening." He grinned back, but then hers faded. "Can we go back to the universe we both came from?"

He shook his head. "No. I shouldn't have even been able to get here in the first place. We're stuck here, now."

She gazed at him. "You stranded yourself."

"Yeah." The Doctor fiddled distractedly with the console.

Rose walked up to him. "For me."

The Doctor summoned his resolve and met her eyes steadily. "Yes."

"I think I might be in love with you."

The Doctor fought a grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth, delighted and amused. Of course she was. She proved as much in everything she did.

"That all right?"

Glancing away, the Doctor attempted to play off the significance of her words cool and casual, but he couldn't keep the grin out of his expression. "Oh, I should think so."

Rose narrowed her eyes at him, her tongue poking out. "Really? Are you sure?"

He turned his eyes up to the ceiling as he pretended to give this some serious thought. "Mm, yes. I'm quite sure it is, yeah."

She slowly shook her head, peering at him dangerously. "I'm so gonna slap you."

The Doctor's grin turned silly, helplessly happy at heart.

Rose advanced on him, taking the Doctor by surprise. She ran her hands through his hair, making him forget which way was up until he found himself bumping backwards into the console. When she pulled away, she looked fuzzy and unfocused in his vision.

"Let's go visit my mum first."

The Doctor sobered. "What, you mean we didn't leave her in the other universe?"

Rose seemed to take the jab towards her mother in stride and pursed her lips as she shook her head. "Nope."

"Do we have to?"

"The last she saw of me was hitching a ride to the stars and flying all the way out to this blasted little outpost on my own, not knowing if she'd ever see me again." Rose stepped backwards, away from him. "Besides, I'm sure she would love to see that you made it through alive."

He arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure she wouldn't rather slap me instead?"

Rose grinned at him over her shoulder as she turned. "Like I just did to you?"

The Doctor bugged his eyes at her, even more horrified. "Oh, please, no."

Her melodious laugh bounced around the console room, and the Doctor thought just maybe, the TARDIS console glowed a little brighter for it.

Rose wandered towards the corridor and peered around the dark corner. "Seems the TARDIS could care less about out here for now." She gripped the doorframe and gazed back at him, looking to him for all the universe a picture of life and love, his most treasured and fulfilling companion. "While we wait until the TARDIS is ready to fly, care to right some chairs in the kitchen and see if we can get the kettle working?"

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, brilliant!"

Everything was going to be more than all right.

-^^ End ^^-


End file.
